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'Rare' birth of live reindeer twins in Cairngorms
'Rare' birth of live reindeer twins in Cairngorms
Great British Bee Count 2018 - in pictures
As the fifth annual Great British Bee Count gets under way, wildlife and gardening experts are calling on the public to grow weeds to help Britain’s bees. The count, which will provide the first national health check for wild bees and other pollinators, runs until 30 June
Continue reading...EU nations’ CO2 price floor efforts win World Bank praise as global pricing revenues double in 2017
Future of global carbon markets rests on China success -survey
Air pollution plans to tackle wood burners
Carbon markets back from the brink of collapse, says World Bank
Development of major new markets in China and reforms in Europe have provided a crucial boost as countries look at tools to cut carbon and meet their Paris climate targets
Global carbon markets have been revived from the brink of collapse as, after years in the doldrums, recent developments have provided a much-needed boost, according to a new report from the World Bank.
China has made strong progress on its new carbon markets, which when complete will be the biggest in the world, while the EU initiated reforms of its carbon trading system which have already had an effect on prices.
Continue reading...Rangers find 109,217 snares in a single park in Cambodia
Snares – either metal or rope – are indiscriminately killing wildlife across Southeast Asia, from elephants to mouse deer. The problem has become so bad that scientists are referring to protected areas in the region as “empty forests.”
A simple break cable for motorbikes can kill a tiger, a bear, even a young elephant in Southeast Asia. Local hunters use these ubiquitous wires to create snares – indiscriminate forest bombs – that are crippling and killing Southeast Asia’s most charismatic species and many lesser-known animals as well. A fact from a new paper in Biodiversity Conservation highlights the scale of this epidemic: in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom National Park rangers with the Wildlife Alliance removed 109,217 snares over just six years.
“Some forests in Vietnam don’t have any mammals left larger than squirrels,” Thomas Gray, the lead author of the new paper and the Science Director for Wildlife Alliance, said. “Given how diverse these forests formally were this must be having substantial impacts on ecosystem services and the [forest’s] entire biodiversity.”
Continue reading...Cheap condensers to displace gas as renewable energy back-up
What’s happened to South Australia’s biggest and most modern gas generators?
UK’s new air pollution strategy ‘hugely disappointing’, says Labour
Consultation proposes reducing pollutants, including particulates from wood burners and ammonia from farms – but does little to tackle diesel emissions
A new clean air strategy published by the UK government has been criticised as “hugely disappointing” by the Labour party. Other groups said it did little to tackle the dirty diesel vehicles that are the main source of toxic air in urban areas.
The new strategy, announced on Tuesday by environment secretary, Michael Gove, aims to crack down on a wide range of pollutants. These include particulates from wet wood and coal burning in homes, ammonia emissions from farms and dust from vehicle tyres and brakes.
Continue reading...Country diary: the cuckoo in the mining bee's nest
Lower Benefield, Northamptonshire: When the two eggs hatch, the nomad bee larva’s sickle-shaped jaws make short work of the mining bee larva
Our delayed spring, when it arrived, came in a sudden burst. Each insect species has a calendar slot for emerging from hibernation. For many bees good timing ensures that they emerge when their favourite flowers are opening. For the chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica), a large, shiny, dark bee that nests in Benefield lawns and banks, success is awaking when the blackthorn blossom bursts.
The thaw triggered an explosion of flowers and insects that in warmer years would have emerged in March and early April, all arrived at once. My car windscreen accrued a sparse smattering of ex-insect life, and others reported similar. It is odd to celebrate pointless high-speed fatalities, but they represent an echo of the richer aerial plankton of past decades, and thereby a flicker of hope for the future.
Continue reading...Toxic clouds rise up as lava from Kilauea volcano hits sea – video
White clouds of gas billow into the sky over Hawaii as molten rock from the Kilauea volcano pours into the ocean. People have been warned to stay away from the fumes, which are laced with hydrochloric acid and fine glass particles that can irritate the skin and eyes and cause breathing problems.
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